Born Again American

The story begins on July 4, 1976, when radio talk show personality C. C. Farr returns to his home town in Vermont and attends a Bicentennial Celebration. Fate joins Farr to venerable U.S. Representative Porter Samuels and powerful newspaper publisher Howard Barnard. Together they launch a grass roots campaign, “Born Again American:” Their goal is to make Farr a household name so Farr will win Samuels’ seat in the House upon Samuels’ retirement. Farr is unaware of Barnard and Samuels’s real mission: to manipulate Farr and control his activities in Congress. This tale, now resurrected from the ash heap of recent history, foretells trends that became a cynical political path at the turn of the millennium: talk radio, evangelical religion, and populist conservatism.